1. I understand that my description of the original foul wasn't very good. The defender had her hand out playing good defense, A1 made a move towards her and B1 gave her a push. A1's momentum kept going with B1's hand stuck there. My partner was not going to calling that an intentional foul as he had already called the push. From a game management position I could see calling an intentional, but at that point B1 had not tried to foul to stop the clock yet and the push was called, it just ended ugly with
a handful of jersey. I agree you can't stop calling the game in that situation.
I believe that you are missing my point. I'm not talking about game management or stopping the clock. I'm telling you that grabbing a handful of an opponent's jersey is flat-out an intentional personal foul.
2. My partner discussed the possibility of using a similar strategy but 1) Didn't want to spend anymore time over there than necessary. 2) Wanted to properly apply NFHS rules (only none of us were certain). Our assignor has taken issue to his college officials using NCAA rules or making up rules.
Understandable and a good thought.
3. We could have had more
flagrant technicals for the second and third comments however
the R was the first to admit that he didn't want to run the risk of running the whole bench (
code for he didn't want to add to the paperwork ).
Very chicken of the R.
I wonder what your assignor thinks of his unwillingness to assess proper penalties to those who misbehave. The excuse of having to do paperwork had better be a joke. He wasn't risking tossing the whole bench. The bench personnel's behavior put them all at risk of being run.
4. We discussed a forefit and decided that since the bench had almost immediately cooled down after the last outburst and everyone took a seat, that we wouldn't take that route.
The situation didn't warrant a forfeit. I agree. However, you needed to get the people whose behavior was totally unacceptable out of there and if that meant every adult on the bench, then so be it. If that means a forfeit in your state, then that's the way it goes as well. Never ignore unsporting behavior. Never fail to punish unsporting behavior of which you are aware.
As a follow-up to the situation, after our report was submitted, we received an e-mail from the coach apologizing for "ruining" the game (she also sent this to the other team). She acknowledged that there was no intentional foul and that she should have had better control over her bench. The school "asked" the head coach to "remove" two of the assistants. The head coach also sat out a game. It turns out that the original comment came from a guy who had a grudge from about 5 years ago against the calling official when this joker used to be a head coach (this coming from the AD, who didn't like the guy in the first place). My partner had no idea.
Yep, and I can now assure you that had you instructed the Head Coach to remove the offending AC even though you couldn't pinpoint him, she would have. Kudos to the school admin for stepping up and doing the right thing in the aftermath.
Assignor reviewed the tape and the report and didn't have any problems with our decisions. The funny thing is that when we asked him about a rules backing for a direct t to the head coach for anonymous bench conduct, he was unable to come up with one.
That's because there isn't one. We've discussed this issue before on this very forum too. Perhaps the NFHS committee will finally give us something this summer. There is such a rule for NFHS soccer. Given that the NFHS has previously stated that it intends for all of it's sports to be conducted in the same manner regarding issues such as sportsmanship and player safety, I wouldn't be surprised to see bench conduct rules become uniform throughout all NFHS sports.